UMECUnited Mining Exploration Commission: A group of friends playing JumpGate-- "a MMORPG that launched smoothly, breaks from fantasy character setting, emphasizes PvP, and is the first persistent world space simulator that nobody talks about." ~Scorch

Octavian Recruit Training
Octavius is known for its commonly mercenary attitudes. Teamwork amongst Octavians is usually a pipe dream, as personal glory dominates. If you are more of the lone wolf type, make Octavius your home.
PROS:
- 10000 credits signing bonus
- more weapon hardpoints
- better armor
Attention Octavian Recruit! As far as Soldier Ronin can take you, we'll take you further.
So you're level 0 and parked at Octavian's Core station orbiting the planet Ares Prime.
All that red colour and Martial stuff got your blood pumping? I'd stow it till you're a corporal (rank matrix). Until that time comes you'll be a lowly shuttle pilot, unless you've got Squad connections. ARRRH

Alright then! Let's get started. (I'm bloody assuming you've practiced docking in the offline simulator...OFFLINE! since when your online for any reason your duty hours are logged, and you don't wanna miss out on that medal! Though since NetDevil changed it from 5.0 to 12.0 hours, it's not that important you conserve duty hours)

You've equipped the pusher engine and sold that starter engine; Selected your mission destination as Great Pillars station and chosen Transport; You're locked cocked and ready to rock...hit LAUNCH

Use the "Cycle next target" ['T' key (or mouse scroll wheel if you use mouse/keyboard config...if you don't have mouse scroll wheel then see here] to find your first waypoint destination which is Imperial Gates JG (you'll notice on the lower left of your HUD the waypoint indicator cycle each time you press the "next target" key; Previous target key is 'Y')

You'll be travelling through 5 sectors to get to GP station, and you'll jump ['J' key] through 4 JumpGates. ALWAYS REMEMBER TO AIM AS THOUGH TO FLY THROUGH A JG. (These being Oct Core, Imperial Gates, Dark Fork, Imperial Crossroads, and Great Pillars)

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You'll be rewarded a medal for jumping through a JumpGate. The "Leap of Faith" medal. (note you'll only get this once. to get more, you'll need to trade in a full basic set for a Skill Star which are very handy indeed!

Along the way you may want to hail other pilots. Remember that while inflight you'll need to hit the Function key (f1-5) every sentence. DO NOT CHAT WHILE APPROACHING JG'S!

Enroute you may see purple blips chasing you called "squid". These are hostile aliens that will always attack you and cannot be negotiated with on chat channels. they are called "Conflux"...Since you are not going to engage in combat, you're 10minutes of afterburner/brake fuel can be used liberally the whole trip. (cutting your flight time by ~14% to just under 7min, including extended docking approach)

Dock at less than 100v (remember to come to a FULL STOP in the docking rings; rings are visible at <6km to targetted station)

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Once safetly docked you'll be rewarded with two medals, "Safety Belt" and "Honor's Mark". (landings and missions respectively)

At this point you'll have just 200xp to go till next level...Don't bother purchasing anything, just take another mission: OctCore destination (transport); and launch

Once you dock safely at OC station the fun starts. you'll be promoted to Private and given a bonus of c5500 credits which puts you up to ~c21150 total (not counting donations from fellow pilots)

That modx Camera will now allow you to use the Zoom function. ['Z' key] Which is just dandy when aiming for JumpGates and Docking ports! (not to mention shooting flux, but that's later)

Unfortunately, you're not yet ready to deal with combat yet...two more missions...save your money and do another return trip to Great Pillars, once you've done two more transports you'll be a Lvl2 Specialist (with c12,000 bonus as well, bringing your net cash to about ~c25600)

Now, purchase a Cyclops radar and sell your old one...you'll pick up a Deflector shield at GP station after your 5th successful transport mission...At which point you'll start saving money, unless you happen to bump into any of these foreign gear along the way:
Contender PP, Hall Monitor radar, &/or FlatIron shield. Buy them...they are cheaper & better than your current Octavian gear (Solrain stuff; foreign. They make some good stuff. Octavians can't be best at everything! Get over it.)

After your 7th transport mission you'll have ~c15500 credits. spend it one a Tank capacitor.

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OH. BTW, be careful about crossing Dark Fork sector...I tended to head for the wrong jumpgate alot...hehe

Okay, so keep doing boring transports till you get promoted to Lvl3-Corporal (take about 9 successful transport missions total; you can see how many you've done successfully by checking out your pilot's profile located here)

Now then, Corporal! Listen up! You're gonna take a Lvl1 combat mission for 4 c1 conflux and order up us some sushi! (Before you head out, try going into the ONLINE simulator to try out your new toys in the "Individual Conflux" zone)

Right! keep doing lvl1 combat missions and go tour the universe! Use this conflux combat guide by the fine folks at New Dawn Squadron to aid your progress.

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Right around now i'd expect you to hit the 2hours online duty mark and gain your first "Ring of Commitment" medal

I'd suggest going to Outpost station to pick up those items i told you about earlier (I haul that gear in from Wake station for octavian n00bs)

Once you're kitted out, you're best bet is to do combat missions between OutPost & Tripoint until you reach lvl4-Sergeant. That's when you're able to grab up a Rake PowerPlant and an OCT-BCU

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during this time grab someone to "Broker" you a FlashFire (usually 5kcr on black market) and a pair of Purgatory missiles (usually 10kcr each on blackmarket). FlashFires are for one burst of superspeed (recharged upon docking) ['C' key] and missiles ['B' key] are how you gain the "Tactical Pride" medal

As soon as you've gotten your Rake powerplant and BCU, you've got to be quick about finding a grey beacon in Octavia to "flip" (alot of people compete for this honor); Start doing that before your 5th hour mark and you're pretty much assured both a Skill Star and a Rising Star medal i mentioned earlier.

BTW, once you've "flipped" your first "beek" you MUST buy a Duster mining laser and head to OctDepot ASAP...once there you'll learn how to store both your Illuminator guns and equip that mining laser and mine the nearest brown roid in order to get a "Miner's Heart" medal by selling 0.2 units or ore at once (you don't need to take a mining mission)

There. that's it. stuff that Duster laser into storage, grab yer Illuminators, continue with your Combat missions and you'll be a lvl5-Staff Sergeant in no time flat (BTW, if someone steals your beek by flipping it green or blue, you're in trouble...so good luck!)

And remember to keep an eye on your Pilot Profile to watch your stats.

AND DON'T STOP TO CHAT FOR VERY LONG, IF AT ALL (you've got a whole 12.0 online hours in which to get to lvl5-staff sergeant, but even docked/simulator times count, so don't get complacent)

(UMEC's version of JOSSH recruiting posters)

Last edited by MajorFreak on Thu Feb 06, 2003 4:34 pm; edited 13 times in total

RAVEN
Want that Raven really badly? Think it sucks to be broke once you've got it?

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The raven is completely affordable in retail..When I got it in beta I barely had the cash for a good ghetto raven...in retail the money for it was way easier to come across..want to know how? I actually flew all the ships that you could get before it...I flew the Ape..then went to the alba then to the buzz..What did I do to get cash?...once in the alba i flew trannies missions and took a commod with me...then to the buzz i did the same..flew tranny missions while carrying commods...the thing is those ships are there for a reason. they may not be the fastest but they do help you save up for your nix while leveling

Here is a tip...when you are first starting out leveling..in the long run you are better off doing Outpost <--> Wake (going to SC is dangerous. there's a chance of manta and snails enroute and if you don't have an escort it's sketchy) or Tripoint <--> QDepot, if you must power level, rather than doing that ridiculous Outpost to Lothar'sLanding run..why?

Griefers like to hang around unregulated (neutral) sectors to kill unsuspecting n00bs (they get no penalty and you get no revenge unless you have friends)

you get pr. pr translates into lower taxes..lower taxes translates into higher profits. PR also translates into less need brokers.

you make exp both ways..sometimes more..especially if you gain Ruby, Sapphire & Emerald Nova Medals in the process.

Mo money partly becuase of reason number one..and also becuase as you make more cash..more profit is to be made at the trips between reg stations.

All of these tips will help the average noob afford all the needed equipment..even if it has to be brokered

So, if you do OP LL runs..you're gonna be broke when it comes time to hop into a raven...btw the raven is a fun little fighter...for a starter fighter.

I have zero pvp skill and the sucker wasn't that much of a handful for me to go fluxxing with....kills snails dead

Gutterboy

And here's a lvl9 geared Raven loadout: ECONOMY CLASS(If you wanna be a twinked munchkin be my guest...but why are you still here?)(image and editing jobs are all mine. thanks for Gutterboy for doing the hard work of conceptual design)

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P.S. you may wonder about mining. the Quantar Broker gun is worlds better than your faction's Duster and Solrain's Excavator (well, more like twice the speed of two excavators & your lvl6 Buzzard can equip it) and if you mine a roid you'll see that you get a combination of all 5 types of ore. You're probably getting interested as to how much cash you can get by selling this "combination of ores" at once. Well, to be honest just look at the profits you get for hauling commods between Tripoint & QDepot (pitiful really) and compare them the profit when you sell a "combination of ores"

Since each type of roid always gives the same percentage (rad/semi/prec/ice/common) of ore when mined, i can show you the composition of roids:

Since ore prices never vary more than 1%, i can show you the profit on mining a certain type of roid, EXCLUSIVELY, and filling a Buzzard's cargo hold with 7.000 units (quantar bonus EXcluded; mission bonus excluded)

Common roid mining produces a profit of ~8825cr

Ice roid mining produces a profit of ~13650cr

Precious roid mining produces a profit of ~16750cr

Semiflux roid mining produces a profit of ~26475cr

Radioactive roid mining produces a profit of ~28700cr

Example: You're in your buzzard at Tripoint and decide to hell with hauling commodities you're gonna buy that Broker mining laser (hey. size2gunslot on buzz. go for it) and make your fortune licking roids like a Quantar. *g* Now you've read my instruction to take a transport to Qdepot. So you launch and head for Qdepot...once you get to the Qdepot sector you can find a nice roid and fill your hold

Beware. when pilots mine a roid it takes ~1 hr to refresh ~2units of ore, and there are 3 sizes of asteroids with a limited amount of ore per size (small~5/med~10/large~20) You can tell when an roid has been mined out when you can no longer drain units from it and it's "Blue"

If it's only a "little bit" blue, and you're feeling competent, you can always try orbiting the roid at ~5 - 10v; it speeds up the mining rate something fierce; if you don't trust me trust the dev's. they said it)

...Now wait! it gets better. you then dock your fully loaded Buzzard at Qdepot station (be careful. you're carrying the equivalent of 7 ammunition commods) thus completing your transport mission and choose the level 1 common ore mining mission (i'm assuming you licked a brown rock) and then sell your ore to Qdepot station without launching and you'll complete two missions in one trip.

I'm sure you'll notice that you cannot sell anything but the full amount of a certain type of roid...preventing you from completing multiple mining mission of that type of roid....heheheh....You've probably guessed what i'm getting at and my suspense is killing you, yes? probably.

Once you become proficient at mining you'll no doubt start looking for the rare roids, at that point you'll realize if you mine a prec/semi/rad roid you'll have enough common ore to complete your transport and hope to be given a mining mission for the rare ore you've got on you (and if you don't you can take a common ore mission to "spin the wheel on the price is right")

Units needed to complete one mining mission: (quantar bonus EXcluded)

Lvl 3-5: 2.000 units

Lvl 6-8: 3.000 units

Lvl 9-11: 4.000 units

Lvl 12-14: 5.000 units

Lvl 15-17: 6.000 units

Lvl 18-20: 7.000 units

Lvl 21-23: 8.000 units
...well, you get the idea.

BTW, a rotacol is a handy modx while mining. Learn to use the custom waypoint function that is activated when you equip a rotacol (simply type "/rotacol x y z" without the quotes while in a sector you want to set the waypoint and cycle your radar until the new custom waypoint appears; only one per sector)

And forget Artifact hunting. If you don't have the aptitude to learn on your own, then you're not the "Explorer Type" so there. nyaaaaaaaa

I'm leary of teaching you about pure roids (the ones that give you a single type of commodity), because they have a few "GameEngine Bugs" that are frustrating...So until that's fixed, i'll let you attempt that on your own. good luck. have fun.